


Theo's Birthdays

by LI0NH34RT



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: If You Squint - Freeform, M/M, Theo Raeken Week 2018, Thiam
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-23
Updated: 2018-11-23
Packaged: 2019-08-28 02:05:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,275
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16714474
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LI0NH34RT/pseuds/LI0NH34RT
Summary: Five times Theo hated his birthday and one time he didn’t.





	Theo's Birthdays

**Author's Note:**

> My one (and only) contribution to the Theo Raeken Week.

I.    The first one he can remember   
Theo is three years old and it’s the first time he consciously knows that today is supposed to be a special day for him. He has seen other kids in their street, how they have loud and colourful parties with lots of cake and present.    
He gets none of that.   
“Sweetie”, said his mom when he asked for a cake, “we don’t have time for that now.”   
“Don’t you see that your sister is sick? How can you be so selfish?” said his father when he asked for a present.   
Tara is the only one who doesn’t say anything. She just smiles and beckons him closer. And when Theo sits in his bed that night, his little hand still closed around the small leather band Tara gave him earlier, then he thinks that it wasn’t such a bad day after all.   
It really was far from the worst birthday Theo ever had, though the memory of it got more and more bittersweet each year until it was just bitter.

  
   
II.    The one where he realized that he was alone   
When Theo is six years old he understands that he is alone. He is going to school since summer and nobody talked to him. Only _about_ him. _The Raeken kid_ , they said, _just as much trouble as his father._ And _Tara is the only decent one of the whole bunch._ And _Did you hear that Jonathan was so drunk last night he couldn’t even get home alone?_   
Theo understands that he is different from the other kids, but he doesn’t know why they hate him for it.   
His sixth birthday is when he learns to hate his family. His father for being drunk and mean. His mother for doing nothing when he screams at Theo. And Tara, Tara he hates for being perfect when he is not.   
It’s a childish feeling and even then Theo knows that he shouldn't, but that doesn’t stop him from feeling left behind by the people that are supposed to care about him the most. His family.

  
III.    The one that wasn’t so bad (it still was)   
One year later, Theo has friends. Two boys named Scott and Stiles and even though they are inseparable, Theo somehow fits in with them. For a while he is nearly happy, basking in the warmth that comes with feeling loved.   
His seventh birthday he spends with Scott and Stiles, hidden away in the jungle that is Scott's backyard because his mother works doubles at the hospital and wo has time to cut down trees anyway?   
The cake Melissa McCall bakes him tastes like vanilla cream and to this day Theo can still remember how bright the icing on top of it was. _Happy Birthday, Theo._

  
Later that night, when Theo listens to his dad yell at mom in the kitchen, they visit for the first time. Three figures, straight out of a nightmare, stand in front of his bed, no movement, no sounds, just the static rustle of a radio without a frequency.   
Theo doesn’t sleep that night.

  
IV.    The bloody one   
Theo is ten years old when he becomes a murderer. Of course he doesn’t know that then. He is just a scared boy who has long given up on the wish of a normal life.    
The victim, a boy not much younger than he is, cries and writhes in his holds on the cold metal table.   
“What is wrong with him?” Theo asks.   
“Failure”, the genetrist, who has always been the most willing to answer his questions, hisses, “condition terminated. Failure.”   
Failures don’t get to live. Theo knows that. And so he steps closer, looks into the wide, frightened eyes of the experiment gone wrong and he extracts his claws.  

  
V.    The lonely one   
It’s the memories of all this past birthdays that keep Theo awake that night. He is eighteen and just came back from hell. He is eighteen and sleeps in his car. He is eighteen and has no one.    
The wind rushes through the small slits in the truck and Theo pulls the shabby blanket tighter around his body as another violent shiver runs through him, turns out being a Chimera protects him from getting ill, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t able to feel the cold.   
“Happy Birthday to me”, he mumbles as the clock on his phone changes to midnight. It’s almost funny how, no matter where he is and what he is doing, he never forgot his birthday, as if something inside his patched body, made up from parts that aren’t his own, still remembers.    
A dry laugh escapes his throat, one that turns into a cough half way.

  
_Maybe this is finally the last one_ , he thinks, drifting to an unruly sleep.

  
   
+I.     The Good One   
Liam. That is his first thought after waking up. It’s not particularly surprising though, because Theo thinks about Liam very often.    
It’s very hard not to, since the beta practically forced him to move in with him after finding Theo sleeping in his truck one night.   
It has been almost a year and Theo still takes a deep breath every morning before opening his eyes.   
He couldn’t bear to wake up and be back in the truck, or worse with his sister.   
Liam’s scent is all over the room, which is also not surprising because even though he had his own room, Liam seems to like Theo’s more so often is he found curled up on Theo’s bed while the Chimera sits at his desk doing homework.   
It wakes a long lost feeling in Theo’s chest. Warmth. Friends. _Home_. ...love.   
And so he has come to associate Liam’s smell with the safety that this is real, that he is alive.   
   
The warm feeling in his chest spreads when his ears pick up on the three heartbeats downstairs and he smiles.   
Theo used to smile often.    
A bright, toothy laugh when he was three years old and still innocent.   
A carefully shy smile when he enters the classroom every day, unsure of himself and his place.   
A nearly-happy grin fuelled by the adrenaline of _friends and levity._   
A cold smirk as his hands are dripping with blood, hiding the disgust deep inside.   
   
But never the simple, way to soft for his face, smile that forms on his own whenever he thinks of Liam.   
Suddenly the urge to see him is too much to handle and so Theo gets up.   
The conversation in the kitchen dies down when his bare feet come in contact with the fifth step on the stairs, the one that creaks a little but not loud enough that David would rush to fix it, and Theo is met with three pairs of shining eyes when he enters the room.   
“Good morning Theo!” Jenna smiles, turning from the stove that currently holds a pan with blueberry pancakes, Theo’s favourite.   
The table is set, a vase with fresh flowers as centerpiece and a smiling David in his usual place. “Morning Theo, slept alright?”   
Theo takes a step back, the confusion that bubbles up his throat stifling any words that could escape.   
   
And then there is Liam, smiling like his parents, only brighter, he hops down from where he was sitting on the counter, using the momentum to start towards Theo and in the next moment he flings his arms around him.    
The confusion dissolves, all Theo feels is Liam. Warmth, safety and _pack_.   
   
“Happy Birthday T.” Liam whispers.

  
It is the 23. November. It is Theo’s birthday and he forgot it for the first time. He takes it as a good sign. 


End file.
